Peterhead 0 v 0 Albion Rovers 
Division 3
15th December 2001
Peterhead 0 v 0 Albion Rovers
Division 3
15th December 2001
Attendance : 480
It was a colourful occasion at Peterhead’s Balmoor Stadium on Saturday with red, yellow and, believe it or not, two-tone grey featuring prominently. The red and yellow came from the cards flashed by over-zealous referee Eddie Mack, while the unlikely grey came to notice through the sparkling performance of Rovers’ goalkeeper Chris Fahey in a jersey of that normally uninspiring hue.
For the second successive Saturday, the Cliftonhill ‘keeper turned in a superb showing to deny the opposition who, although often inept up front, had enough long-range chances to keep the goalkeeper on his toes. Rovers, on the other hand, only occasionally looked as if they had the guile to breach the home defence although Charlie McLean, Martin Harty and Paul Bonar might have done better with tries. The match had six bookings and one ordering-off, that unfortunate latter distinction falling to Rovers’ Martin Harty for apparent illegal use of an arm eight minutes from the end.
With John McVeigh’s injury problems continuing, those players who have recently done so well were again entrusted, the only change being the addition to the squad of young Robert Coulter, signed on a month’s loan from neighbours Airdrie.
It took Rovers some time to get into this match in any meaningful way as Peterhead took immediate control of the important midfield area. Within the first three minutes, the Blue Toon saw Kevin Tindal fire narrowly over from a free-kick and a Scott Clark header skim the crossbar. After another Tindal long-range shot had caused concern, Rovers at last managed to get down to the other end, but Ryan McMullan’s cut-back from the right found no takers. In the 19th minute, a great cross into the box by Clark was brilliantly hooked away by Gerry McKenna before McMullan latched on to a poor home pass-back but wasted what was a good chance by shooting tamely into the arms of veteran home ‘keeper Paul Mathers.
After Tindal had been booked for fouling McMullan, Mark Booth found Harty with an incisive through-ball, but Mathers advanced from his charge to make a good save at the youngster’s feet. Peterhead finished the first half as they had begun it - on top, and Mark Simpson and Kevin Bissett both headed over from good position while Martin Johnston’s left-foot drive was superbly turned for a corner by the agile Fahey. Todd Lumsden was yellow-carded right on the interval whistle.
Into the second half and Peterhead’s Iain Stewart came close with a shot which almost crept in at the top corner. His colleague Greig Smith then became the second booking of the day before a Booth shot was deflected into Mather’s grateful arms. In the 57th minute, another Tidal free-kick looked to be heading inside a post until the diving form of Fahey brilliantly turned it for a corner. Within a couple of minutes, the ‘keeper again did well when he held a Bissett goal-bound header. In one of Rovers’ all to infrequent attacks, Colin Waldie threaded the ball to Charlie McLean, but Tindal was perfectly placed to rob the striker before he could gain proper control.
Things then began to hot up on the incident front with Martin Harty being booked, Booth making a last-ditch clearance from a dangerous cross into the box and a good header by substitute Iain Diack coming close. Then, within the space of two minutes, McMullan and Diack had their names added to Mr Mack’s ever-growing list before a home free-kick found Simpson in the clear, but Fahey was quickly out to deprive the lanky defender of what looked like a reasonable chance. Following Harty’s dismissal, Fahey was again in the spotlight when he rose to touch a blistering drive from substitute Craig Yeats over the crossbar.
With only a couple of minutes remaining, Rovers might have stolen all three points, but Paul Bonar’s strong run into the box was brought to an end by a good Martin Canning tackle. Given the overall perception of the match however, Rovers could maybe consider that taking a point was a reasonable day’s work, with only the disciplinary record being the real disappointment.
Peterhead : Mathers, Canning, Smith, MacKay, Simpson, Tindal, Clark, Stewart, Bissett (Yeats 65), Johnston, Livingstone (King 75). Unused Subs : Slater, Gibson, Pirie.
Albion Rovers : Fahey, McKenna, Lumsden, Hamilton, Easton, Booth, Waldie, McMullan (McCormick 88), McLean (Diack 72), Harty, Bonar. Unused Subs : McKenzie, Coulter, Shearer.
Referee : Eddie Mack.
Man of the Match : Chris Fahey
